In the consumerâ€™s universe â€˜youthâ€™ has gained a very prominent spot and caught the fancy of marketers. If numbers are something to go by, 70 per cent of the Indians are below the age of thirty and nearly 50 per cent below the age of 25 years. Also, estimates suggest that India has a median age at 26 years (as of 2010), trending towards 28 in 2020. Compare this to median age of other countries in 2010: Brazil at 29, China at 34, US at 36.6, Russia at 38, UK at 40 and Japan at 45. No wonder then, marketers are putting so much emphasis on Youth in their marketing blueprints.

And thatâ€™s why, we at Pitch decided to put the spotlight on the marketing initiatives around youth with the Pitch Youth Marketing Summit & Awards 2012.Â The Pitch Youth Marketing Summit & Awards 2012 will be held on 12th October 2012 at New Delhi. The summit will be held between 10 AM to 5 PM and the awards between 6 PM to 8 PM.

To showcase the best work by brands in the Youth Marketing category, we have clearly chosen 12 award categories out of which nine can be entered directly. We will be awarding a Gold and a Silver winner in each of these categories.Â Â The categories are: Youth Marketer of the Year, Youth Agency of the Year, Most Effective Digital Media Strategy, Most Effective Activation Strategy, Best Sustained Youth Brand Campaign, Best Usage Of A Celebrity Brand Endorser, Most Innovative Youth Product/Service Launch Of The Year, Boldest Youth Brand Of The Year, Best Media Youth Brand, Pitch Young Marketer Of The Year (Below 30 Years) and Wackiest Youth Brand (Poll Based). The entries for the awards are open now and brands can enter them across categories.

Judging will happen at a Jury meet on 29th September 2012 in New Delhi. The Jury members will judge the entries on following criteria: Results (40 per cent ), Strategy (20 per cent ), the big idea (20 per cent ), Execution (20 per cent ). Jury members will shortlist four nominations in each category (except for three categories Wackiest Youth Brand, Youth Marketer of the Year and Youth Agency of the Year) based on the information shared in the entries. Special weightage will be given to third party certified data and information in the entries. The Jury Chairpersons will finally select the Gold and the silver winner in each of these categories.

There are no nominations invited for three categories: Wackiest Youth Brand, Youth Marketer of the Year and Youth Agency of the Year. The nominations for Wackiest Youth Brand will come from the jury members and editorial team of exchange4media Group. These nominations will then go up for a poll on exchange4media.com and pitchonnet.com. Finally winners will be selected based on the votes in the poll.

For the category Youth Marketer of the Year, the award will be given based on the weightage of brands that win in the rest of the categories. The weightage will be given based on the number of Gold and silver awards won by brands in the rest 10 categories. The agency of the winner brand in this category will get the award for Youth Agency of the Year.

For more details about the event, log on to http://www.exchange4media.com/YMS2012/index.html
Watch this space for more.